Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) has been used to investigate networks within the cortex and has also provided some insight into the networks present in the brainstem (BS) and spinal cord (SC). The purpose of this study was to investigate resting-state blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) fluctuations in the BS/SC and to identify resting-state networks (RSNs) across these regions. Resting-state BOLD fMRI data were obtained from the entire BS and cervical SC in 16 healthy participants, at 3 T, with T2 -weighted single-shot fast spin-echo imaging...

Several studies have demonstrated the antitumor effect of doxazosin, an α1-adrenergic blocker, against glioma and breast, bladder and prostate cancers. Doxazosin is also being evaluated as a treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder and alcoholism, and α1-adrenergic blockers have been linked to neuroprotection in neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Cancer and AD have an inverse relationship in many aspects, with several factors that contribute to apoptosis inhibition and proliferation being increased in cancers but decreased in AD...

Effective information transmission for open skill performance requires fine-scale coordination of distributed networks of brain regions linked by white matter tracts. However, how patterns of connectivity in these anatomical pathways may improve global efficiency remains unclear. In this study, we hypothesized that the feeder edges in visual and motor systems have the potential to become "expressways" that increase the efficiency of information communication across brain networks of open skill experts...

Directing differentiation of neural stem/progenitor cells (NSCs/NPCs) to produce functional neurons is one of the greatest challenging in regenerative medicine. Our previous paper has confirmed that electrical stimulation has a high efficiency of triggering neuronal differentiation by using isolated filum terminale (FT) derived NPCs. To further clarify the intrinsic molecular mechanisms, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis was applied to pinpoints novel hubs in electric field (EF)-induced neuronal differentiation...

Aging is often considered to affect both the peripheral (i.e. the cochlea) and central (brainstem and thalamus-cortex) auditory systems. We investigated the effects of aging on the cochlea, brainstem and cortex of female Sprague Dawley rats. The auditory nerve threshold remained stable between the ages of 9 and 21 months, as did distortion product otoacoustic emissions and the number of ribbon synapses between inner hair cells and nerve fibers. The first clear signs of aging appeared in the brainstem, in which response amplitude decreased, with thresholds remaining stable until the age of 15 months, and increasing slightly thereafter...

Of current obesity treatments, bariatric surgery induces the most weight loss. Given the marked increase in the number of bariatric surgeries performed, elucidating the mechanisms of action is a key research goal. We compared whole brain activation in response to high-energy dense (HED) vs. low-energy dense (LED) visual and auditory food cues before and approximately 4 months after Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (RYGB) (n = 16) and Sleeve Gastrectomy (SG) (n = 9). We included two control groups: a low-calorie diet weight loss group (WL) (n = 14) and a non-treatment group (NT) (n = 16)...

Adolescent binge drinking renders young drinkers vulnerable to alcohol use disorders in adulthood; therefore, understanding alcohol-induced brain damage and associated cognitive dysfunctions is of paramount importance. Here we investigated the effects of binge-like adolescent intermittent ethanol (AIE) exposure on nonspatial working memory, behavioral flexibility and cholinergic alterations in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in male and female rats. On postnatal days P25-57 rats were intubated with water or ethanol (at a dose of 5 g/kg) on a 2-day-on/2-day-off cycle and were then tested in adulthood on social recognition and probabilistic reversal learning tasks...

Fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), a key determinant of normal brain development and neuronal plasticity, plays critical roles in nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of mRNAs. However, the factors involved in FMRP nuclear localization remain to be determined. Using cross-species sequence comparison, we show that an aspartate in position 132 (D132), located within the conserved nuclear localization signal (NLS) of FMRP, appears in human and other mammals, while glutamate 132 (E132) appears in rodents and birds...

Peripheral neuropathy is one of the main complications of diabetes. The pathogenesis of this affectation is not completely understood. Several studies refer to hyperglycemia as the principal cause of diabetic neuropathy. Nonetheless, there are changes in the expression of insulin receptor during the progress of diabetic neuropathy, suggesting that this disorder begins before high glucose blood levels are established. In this study, we investigated fructose-induced insulin resistance as a model of neuropathic pain...

A common feature across neuropsychiatric disorders is inability to discontinue an action or thought once it has become detrimental. Reversal learning, a hallmark of executive control, requires plasticity within cortical, striatal and limbic circuits and is highly sensitive to disruption of N-methyl-D -aspartate receptor (NMDAR) function. In particular, selective deletion or antagonism of GluN2B containing NMDARs in cortical regions including the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), promotes maladaptive perseveration...

There is now widespread consensus that social biases often influence actions independently of the actor's intention or awareness. The notion that we are sometimes blind to the origins of our thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors also features prominently in research into domain-general human memory systems, which has a long history of distinguishing between implicit and explicit repercussions of past experience. A shared challenge across these fields of study is thus to identify techniques for effectively managing the contents of our memory stores, particularly those aspects into which we have limited metacognitive insight...

Songbirds possess mirror neurons (MNs) activating during the perception and execution of specific features of songs. These neurons are located in HVC, a premotor nucleus implicated in song perception, production and learning, making worth to inquire their properties and functions in vocal recognition and imitative learning. By integrating a body of brain and behavioral data, we discuss neurophysiology, anatomical, computational properties and possible functions of songbird MNs. We state that the neurophysiological properties of songbird MNs depends on sensorimotor regions that are outside the auditory neural system...

A significant level of genetic heterogeneity has been demonstrated in intellectual disability (ID). More than 700 genes have been identified in ID patients. To identify molecular pathways underlying this heterogeneity, we applied whole transcriptome analysis using RNA-Seq in consanguineous families with ID. Significant changes in expression of genes related to neuronal and actin cytoskeletal functions were observed in all the ID families. Remarkably, we found a significant downregulation of SHTN1 gene and upregulation of FGFR2 gene in all ID patients...

Many auditory cortical neurons exhibit stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA), i.e., they respond weakly to frequently occurring stimuli but strongly to the same stimuli when presented rarely. SSA has been proposed to be a potential mechanism to engage deviance detection or novelty detection. Previous studies on SSA were investigated in animals reared in normal environment. It has been shown that early postnatal noise exposure impairs the development of cortical processing of sound information. However, it is not understood whether postnatal middle-level noise exposure affects the SSA in the primary auditory cortex (AI), and if yes, whether the impacts of noise exposure on SSA varied with noise exposure periods...

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) can be modulated by both the Val158Met (rs4680) polymorphism of the Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) gene and the menstrual-cycle-related hormone fluctuations, each of which affects the subcortical/cortical dopamine metabolism. PPI can also be modulated by attention. The attentional modulation of PPI (AMPPI) is sensitive to psychoses. Whether the Val158Met polymorphism affects the AMPPI in female adults at different menstrual-cycle phases is unknown. This study examined whether AMPPI and/or PPI are affected by the Val158Met polymorphism in 177 younger-adult females whose menstrual cycles were mutually different across the menstruation, proliferative, or secretory phases...

Septins are highly conserved GTP-binding cytoskeletal proteins involved in neuronal signaling in central nervous system but their involvement in signal transmission in peripheral synapses remains unclear. Sept5 and Sept9 proteins were detected in mouse peripheral neuromuscular junctions by immunofluorescence with a greater degree of colocalization with presynaptic than postsynaptic membranes. Preincubation of neuromuscular junction preparations with the inhibitor of septin dynamics, forchlorfenuron (FCF), decreased co-localization of septins with presynaptic membranes...

Aging is associated with sleep-wake disruption, dampening of circadian amplitudes, and a reduced homeostatic sleep response. Aging is also associated with a decline in hypothalamic cell proliferation. We hypothesized that the aging-related decline in cell-proliferation contributes to the dysfunction of preoptic-hypothalamic sleep-wake and circadian systems and consequent sleep-wake disruption. We determined if cytosine-β-D-arabinofuranoside (AraC), an antimitotic agent known to suppress hypothalamic cell-proliferation and neurogenesis, causes sleep-wake instability in young mice...

Cerebral edema in ischemic stroke can lead to increased intracranial pressure, reduced cerebral blood flow and neuronal death. Unfortunately, current therapies for cerebral edema are either ineffective or highly invasive. During the development of cytotoxic and subsequent ionic cerebral edema water enters the brain by moving across an intact blood brain barrier and through aquaporin-4 (AQP4) at astrocyte endfeet. Using AQP4-expressing cells, we screened small molecule libraries for inhibitors that reduce AQP4-mediated water permeability...